The Japanese giant held a press conference on Friday where company president Akio Toyoda announced that the company will tackle the WRC from 2017 when new regulations for the sport are to be introduced.

Toyoda says he was inspired to sign off on the multi-million dollar program after fans urged him to return the brand to its glory days in the sport during a visit to Finland's WRC round last year.

"I started to feel strongly that we must return to the track while people still remember," he says.

"We're doing it to make better cars, we're doing it to make people smile."

Toyoda says the company's WRC campaign was closer to starting from scratch rather than a return.

The brand secured six driver's titles in the 1990s, with Carlos Sainz, Juha Kankkunen and Didier Auriol taking victories at the wheel of Toyota Celica and Corolla machines.

Having dominated the sport with the Celica, the team fell from grace and was banned from competition for 12 months from cheating in 1995, later returning with the Corolla.

The manufacturer has been testing ahead of itsreturn to the sport. Photo: David McCowen

As part of the announcement, Toyoda unveiled a prototype Yaris-based WRC car that will take on the Volkswagen Polo, Hyundai i20 and Ford Fiesta across the world.

The executive described a personal test-drive of the machine as a rekindled relationship with a lost love, adding that through the company's involvement in rallying "we can get hints that can help us make ever better cars".

The car has a turbocharged 1.6-litre engine that pushes around 220kW of power and 420Nm of torque to all four wheels via a sequential six-speed transmission.

Toyoda confirmed that Toyota will continue racing in the World Endurance CHampsionship and Le Mans 24 Hours for the foreseeable future, in pursuit of efficiency and "to make hybrids more exciting".

"We will continue to compete in WEC because we are planting the seeds of innovation for making better cars," he says.

Toyota will also compete in NASCAR, Japanese Super Formula, Super GT and the Nurburgring 24 Hour races as well as introduce a GT3-spec sportscar based on the Lexus RC coupe in 2015.